Far From Perfect
by arian
Summary: This continues on from Birds In Cages, after about a year has passed. Please read in sequence.


Far From Perfect

By Arian

Author's note: Ok, this is set one year after the beginning of Birds In Cages. It's just a funny little idea that occurred to me and I thought it'd be… funny. That was redundant, wasn't it? Sorry about the title! It's not brilliant, but neither of these two are perfect so it fits nicely! 

The blonde woman flittered around the room, occasionally picking something up and placing it back down in another location. She was humming a tune to herself quietly, making up her own words as she opened a drawer and bundled some clothes into it. Folding was an unknown concept to Arian.

"One year ago, today." She sang softly, with an amused smile on her face. The tune was her own variation of "Happy Birthday".

Arian looked down at the floor and decided quickly that the easiest way to tidy it was the age-old solution of shoving it all under the bed. She had never been what you could call a tidy person. 

"One year ago, today." She sang again, a wide grin crossing her face as she thought of her lyrics for the next line. "One year ago Laguna-made-a-hideous-mistake-and-has-probably-regretted-it-ever-since…" She left the line hanging as she burst out laughing after stringing the words quickly together. 

Having tidied the room as best as she could, she finished the song. "One year ago, today."

This wasn't something she would normally do. She would never even _consider_ tidying up for Laguna on any other day, but today… she did. But only because her own personal agenda could be severely thrown out of play in a room that looked like a herd of chocobos had only just finished stampeding through it. She also had to admit that at least half of the mess she had cleared up was her own.

The room down the hall was still hers, but she stayed here. The other room only had two functions now, really. The first was that it gave her a bit of space to be on her own. It was somewhere she could sit and think or somewhere she could throw something when she got angry. The second reason was Squall. That reason made her smile. She enjoyed winding Squall up. The way his face would crinkle into a disapproving frown made her laugh. Squall felt more comfortable knowing that there was at least a _possibility_ that Arian was in a different room to Laguna. 

She had once asked Squall – jokingly – what his feelings were on being an only child. His reaction had been one of mute terror, which was exactly what she had hoped to provoke. 

The two of them got on a lot better than they originally had, but provoking Squall would always be one of her favourite pastimes. Even if Laguna _did_ object to it and frowned at her whenever she made some sort of comment to Squall. That made her laugh too. The pair of them sat there, frowning at her, just sent her into fits of giggles. And then Squall would look away, exasperated, and Laguna would shrug in a what-can-you-do? sort of way.

Arian pulled the drapes across the window. It was twilight outside. A deep grey sky hung over Esthar, only the occasional dot of starlight in the gaps between the clouds. A storm had been brewing for a while now, but at least it would put an end to the sticky weather they had been experiencing.

_He'll be back soon. She thought,__changing her clothes__. This must be the most unoriginal idea I've ever come up with, but it'll just have to do. He just better bloody appreciate it._

She brushed out her long hair, looking at her reflection critically. _I feel dumb_. But she had to conceded that the dress looked good. Maybe it was the most skimpy, feminine thing she'd ever bought but it _did_ look good. 

She loved the feel of the grey fabric, it was so soft against her skin. Grey was a better colour for her than black. Black made her skin look paler than pale, giving it a sickly appearance. 

Her face grew darker as she remembered a memory connected to this dress. She had bought it a few days ago in one of the many shops scattered around Esthar. 

She had long ago been accepted here, but the down side was that _everyone_ knew _exactly_ who she was. And the people she had encountered in the shop could hazard an educated guess at why she was buying such a dress. The looks the people had given her, the knowing looks. And then when she walked out, she could have sworn she heard sniggering. 

_Well let them snigger! I don't bloody care if the whole of Esthar knows my business!_ She thought for a moment. _Which they do._ She conceded, a little regretfully.

_I _cannot _believe I'm doing this. He'd _really_ better appreciate me doing this or I'll… No, can't think of a decent threat right now, but it'd be really unpleasant. _

Arian moved to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning as she turned on the small lamp on the bedside table. She was grateful, not just for the soft yellow glow, but for the tiny amount of warmth that radiated towards her. She was just a little cold in this dress and tried to burrow her face back into her hair, for the slight warmth she could find there.

Her eyes lit on the wine bottle that sat on the table. _Ah, alcohol! Always good if you're cold!_ She snickered softly, pouring a glass and beginning to feel better. She left everything else on the table untouched, waiting. 

After another ten minutes or so, she sighed impatiently, tapping her fingers idly on the surface. _How typical. He _would_ be late! Sod this._ She began to pick at the small bowl of strawberries she had bought up to the room with the wine earlier. 

Her head twisted up suddenly, hearing voices at the door. Laguna and Kiros. She couldn't tell if Ward was with them or not.

Arian ducked her head back down, staring blankly into her wineglass. _Bring Kiros in here and you die…_ She threatened mentally, praying that it would be only Laguna who walked through that door, otherwise she would have to curl up into a little ball and roll away into a corner. _Don't you dare embarrass me. Please, please, _please! _Not Kiros! He'll laugh at me!_

The door clicked open and closed again, but only when she _didn't_ hear amused laughter and there was a noticeable absence of snide comments, did she look up. Arian sighed in relief. It was just Laguna.

"Hey."

She smiled in reply to the greeting as he walked over to sit besides her.

"You've forgotten, haven't you?"

"Nope." He chuckled at the surprised look on her face. "Don't look so shocked!" He pulled something from his shirt pocket and dropped it into her hand, waiting for her reaction.

"That's not what I meant. I didn't expect you to –" She protested.

"I know. But take a look at it."

"I didn't get you anything. I didn't expect…" Arian's voice trailed off in dismay.

"Stop whinging and _look_ at it! Or I won't buy you a present again." The amused look didn't leave Laguna's eyes for a second as he spoke.

"I don't whinge." Arian corrected quickly, finally looking down at the palm of her hand. Resting there was a slender gold chain with a teardrop shaped emerald pendant. She lifted the necklace, letting it sparkle in the light.

"Now _that_ is beautiful." She breathed in appreciation. "And remarkably tasteful considering it's from you, I might add." She grinned.

"I'll take that as a thank you then, shall I?"

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry." She laughed in mock contrition. "Thank you." For once, her tone was sincere.

"You got another glass around here someplace?" 

"Ah, I'm just one step ahead of you. Here." Arian passed Laguna a full glass, setting the necklace down on the table next to her.

"You're not going to wear it?"

"Not right now. That needs an occasion. I mean, this _is_ an occasion, but that necklace warrants crowds and lights and… you know what I mean. It's too nice to waste it on little old you." She watched in amusement as his head swung back to her, one eyebrow raised.

After a moment of silence, it was clear that Laguna couldn't think of a retort and she smiled smugly. _I won that round._

Arian reached out as he picked up the bottle, taking it out of his hands and placing it firmly back on the table. "No."

"What?" Laguna stared at her in amazement.

"No more." _The last thing I need is you falling asleep 'cause you've drunk too much. That would _really_ mess up my agenda._

"Where did you get this from? Downstairs?" 

"Yeah. I filched it from the kitchen. Well, you call it a kitchen, but that conjures up a sort of quaint farmhouse-kitchen image. That place down there is more like a hospital. It's so white I thought I'd gone blind." She rambled a little, hoping to distract him from what they were talking about.

"The kitchen? _My_ kitchen in case you'd forgotten. So that bottle is mine as well." He said triumphantly, but Arian's look was unimpressed.

"Don't try for that lofty, superior look. You can't quite get it right and it looks dumb on you. Plus, if you try and pull rank on me, I'll make you regret it."

"You know, I thought that if you were gonna filch something, you'd filch Champagne. It doesn't seem like you to go to all that trouble and not pick the best that was there." Laguna commented thoughtfully, ignoring the vague threats that were part of any normal conversation with Arian.

"Don't like it." She screwed her face up in disgust. "It tastes _awful_." She nodded to her wine glass, still sat on the tabletop. "But I like this."

"And strawberries, too, by the looks of it. But _why_ is there no cream or sugar? You can't just eat 'em like that."

"I can." She wrinkled her nose again. "It ruins them if you heap sweet stuff like that on them."

"Couldn't you find any ice-cream at least, in your little foray into the kitchen?"

She grinned at that. "I looked, but do you know there was not a drop anywhere?" Her expression was one of mock surprise. "I think Kiros hid it after the food-fight last week. We should consider ourselves banned from ice-cream right now."

"Hey, it's not our fault Kiros just happened to walk in –"

"In time to get a face full of ice-cream!" She finished, laughing at the memory of Kiros' _very_ disgruntled look. He hadn't been very impressed. "Some people have no sense of humour." 

Arian smiled, the laughter giving way to hiccupping chuckles. She watched in a sort of mild amusement as Laguna moved a hand up to her cheek, dipping his head a little to kiss her.

_Now this is more like it! _She closed her eyes, letting herself sink backwards. _I thought he'd _never_ get the idea… Hey. Hey, wait a minute! Where the hell does he think he's going?_ Arian felt him move away and opened her eyes, seeing Laguna sat upright picking at the strawberries, just as she had done earlier.

He turned and smiled at her. "You taste of strawberries."

Raising herself on her elbows, she put on her most disgruntled face, trying to think just what to say. "What… are you doing?" Her tone was as neutral as she could keep it.

"'m hungry." He turned away, as if that explained everything.

Arian flopped back onto the pillow and sighed. _Why me? There are times… when I could just murder you, y'know that? And I thought things were going so well… I feel like I'm bashing my head against a brick wall. _She pushed aside the homicidal thoughts and clenched her hands into fists. 

_Ok, Arian. Let's try something else._ She flipped her hair away from her face in mild irritation, sitting up and worming her way back towards Laguna. He looked down at her amiably as she pulled his arm around her.

_He picks tonight to be a moron. Wonderful. That's just great._ She groused silently to herself, thinking about what she could do that would draw his attention back to her.

"I'm cold." She said at last, shivering slightly under his arm. _Take the hint, Laguna. I'm beginning to give up. I'm starting to get really, really –_

Her thoughts snapped to a halt as Laguna's voice cut through to her.

"Maybe you should put some warmer clothes on." 

Arian's head shot up, looking at him, slightly astonished. He was actually being serious. Her jaw dropped, but Laguna was still too absorbed in the strawberry bowl to pay her much attention.

_You know what? I give up. I completely give up. I'm going to go and jump off that balcony out there._ After the problems she'd had buying the dress, the last thing she wanted to hear was a comment like that. 

Extremely put out with Laguna, she stood and walked over to the other side of the bed. 

"I'm going to sleep." She muttered, changing quickly into the comfortable long t-shirt she wore as a nightgown. _I hate you sometimes. You just had to spoil it. Well done, Laguna. You've actually made me feel cheap and humiliated. No one's managed to do that before._

Laguna twisted towards her, a mildly surprised look on his face but he just nodded. "Oh… Okay."

_I guess I could go back to my own room… but I'm damned if I'm going to leave him here without a clue how upset I am. I'm staying put and I'll make sure he knows _exactly_ how mad I am at him_. She climbed under the sheets, shutting her eyes tightly against the light in the room and curling into a ball. 

She didn't know how long she lay there, immersed in thoughts about how horrible today had turned out and how dense Laguna could be when he put his mind to it. At some point, Arian felt the light vanish, the red on the inside of her eyelids turning to pitch black.

"Arian. Arian, are you awake?" Laguna was shaking her shoulder gently and she flipped over to find him sat next to her. Her blue eyes glared up at him. 

"I am now." He didn't really need to know that she hadn't been sleeping, she figured. "What do you want?"

"Nothin'. Just wondering if you were awake."

_Like hell you were. I'm seriously put out with you right now, so just leave me alone._

Laguna, completely unaware of her unspoken dialogue, leaned across her, kissing her lips.

When she didn't move a muscle, staring unblinkingly at him with a gaze that would probably have killed, he backed off, more than a little unnerved.

"Ok, what's the matter?" He sighed, brushing the hair back from her face. She refused to answer, still glaring. 

Laguna buried his head face down next to hers in the pillow with a long-suffering sigh. "Let's not play the "I'm not telling you because you should already know" game. The least you can do is tell me what I've done wrong. You can't stay here all night and not talk to me."

"Fine then." She wriggled out from beneath the sheets and walked out the room, tugging at the bottom of the long t-shirt she wore to straighten it out.

"That's not what I meant." Laguna said quietly, rolling his eyes.

***************

Kiros and Ward were more than a little surprised to find Laguna stood outside Arian's room, talking to the door. He was leaning on his hands, resting against the doorframe, looking down at the floor as he spoke.

"C'mon. What have I done this time? I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me."

The two of them stopped walking and leaned against the wall opposite, intrigued. 

"Some kind of problem?" Kiros inquired, faintly amused.

Laguna looked round at his friend. "Something like that. I don't know what it is, though. She won't _tell_ me." He raised his voice loud enough to be heard through the door. He glanced back at Kiros again and muttered under his breath. "Things to do: learn telepathy. It would make things a _lot_ easier."

"You should _know_." An irate voice drifted back in reply to his earlier, louder comment.

Noticing her voice was getting fainter, Laguna swore quietly. "She's going outside. I _know_ she is." He raised his voice again, speaking to Arian. "Hey! I'm talking to you! Don't wander off! Don't you dare step foot on that balcony!"

There was silence for a moment, and then her voice was back next to the door. "Was that an order?" Arian's tone was so quiet and sickly-sweet that Laguna thought for a long time before he answered. 

"No." He sighed. _If I say yes, then she'll be out on that balcony like lightning._ "Hey Kiros, do we have another key to this door?" He hissed across the corridor in his friend's direction.

Kiros laughed, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back against the wall. "Yeah, but I'm not telling you where it is. I'm not going to spoil her fun! Besides, this is really entertaining."

Laguna rolled his eyes, wishing he had a friend who'd actually help him out, instead of making smart comments. "Arian. Please just open the door. I can't talk to a door. And Kiros is laughing at me." Laguna tried for pity, but only echoes of stifled snickering reached him.

He didn't have a clue what to try next but he was starting to get very exasperated. _Now she thinks it's funny. Great._ "Look, I'm sure it's all very funny but this is just slightly humiliating for me." He glanced pointedly back at Kiros and Ward, who were still watching. And laughing. "It's all a game to you, isn't it?" He said suddenly, seriously, directing the comment at Ward and Kiros, not realising that Arian would think he'd spoken to her.

The giggles from the door stopped abruptly. On her side of the door, Arian frowned. _What does he mean? I don't understand what he meant by that._ She sighed as she realised that the only way she could interpret the phrase would be to see his expression. That meant opening the door. 

She carefully placed her whole weight against the door, just slightly cracking it open. As soon as she did that, Laguna's head snapped up and he threw his weight against the other side.

"This isn't fair!" She wailed, twisting her back to the door and digging her heels into the carpet. "You're stronger than me!"

When the door had been pushed open to a large enough degree, Laguna's arm snaked around, grabbing Arian and pulling her out. She yelped as she was yanked out into the corridor, the door slamming back into the wall without her presence.

"Let me go!" She twisted her arm, trying to get Laguna to release his grip. "This isn't _fair_!"

"Didn't your mother ever tell you that life's not fair? Now, we're going to have a nice little talk about why you suddenly found it necessary to throw a temper-tantrum. Won't that be nice?" Laguna watched unsympathetically as she glared back at him. He regretted having to use sheer force against her, he had never done so before but she was the one who had decided to be unreasonable first.

"Don't patronise me. And let me go, that _hurts._"

"If I let you go, you'll run straight back in there." He nodded towards her room. "And I want to know why you're so put out with me." 

Arian dug her heels into the carpet to avoid being dragged up the corridor. "Ward! Kiros! Stop laughing and _help_ me! Hey, no! I wanna go back to my damned room! Laguna, if you don't let me go, I'll… Oh, damn you! Burn in hell!" She continued with the threats the whole way down the hallway. She _couldn't_ hit him, so threats were all she had to work with and they got more and more creative as she was pulled further up the corridor. Unfortunately they didn't work. 

Laguna ended up half-dragging, half-carrying her, pushing her inside the room, and turning to close the door. As soon as he moved away from the door she flew at it, dismayed when it remained resolutely closed.

"Hey! Your door doesn't lock! It's never locked before!"

"Nope. I just don't usually bother." He watched in amusement as she gave up, defeated. 

"Very imprudent. You should lock it."

"Why? You planning on stabbing me in my sleep or something?" He laughed.

Arian's face darkened again. "I might after today." She wandered away from him, remembering that she was upset at him. 

"So finally I'm going to get an answer then."

She turned and gave him a withering look. "'Go and put some warmer clothes on.' Moron!"

The unsuitability of the comment suddenly dawned on him and he laughed. "That's _it_? All that fuss and that's the whole complaint?"

"No, it's not! You were just _so_… Oh, words fail me! You weren't being cooperative. After all the trouble I went to… And the problem I had with that dress… It was just the final straw! You actually made me feel… self-conscious. I thought that I was long past that. I didn't think it was _possible_ anymore." Arian threw her hands into the air in exasperation. 

"I didn't mean to… I'm sorry." He gave her an apologetic half-smile. "But what was the trouble with the dress?" Laguna frowned, not remembering being told about that.

"It was just… the people there. It irritates me that they draw such conclusions from what I buy. I mean, ok, they were right, but…" She sighed. "The whole damned country thinks they know what goes on up here. It gets on my nerves."

"I can't do anything about that." He laughed at her again, stopping suddenly when an impish grin crossed her face. "Arian. What are you thinking? I don't like that evil little glint in your eye."

She smiled sweetly. "Just thinking about what I could go and buy to get 'em all talking." Her face lit up as an idea presented itself. "Y'know those little pregnancy test things…?"

Laguna saw where _that_ line of thought was going and shook his head. "Leave Squall alone. He doesn't deserve to have you tormenting him."

"I wonder how long it would take for word to get to him? And the look on his face would be priceless!" She laughed at Laguna's semi-horrified expression, green eyes slightly wider than usual.

"Drop it, Arian. Leave the kid alone."

Arian nodded, storing that idea away for another occasion. It had too much potential for her to drop it entirely. 

There was a short silence, then Laguna spoke again. "I'm forgiven, then?"

"I guess so. It seems I've given up being mad with you for now." She sighed, letting him twist his arms around her waist. 

"You know, I really did like that dress. I don't suppose you'd –" Laguna looked hopefully at the floor where a ball of grey fabric still lay.

"Don't push your luck."

Well, I quite enjoyed myself writing that! It was good fun! I needed something to cheer myself up with after writing "Second Chance". Let me know what you think!


End file.
